The South East Coaching & Mentoring Network (SECN) is celebrating the completion of training to become internal group supervision facilitators for 14 of its internal coaches.
The SECN consists of Kent County Council in partnership with Kent Fire and Rescue Service and a number of smaller organisations, including HM Prisons Rochester and Maidstone and district councils, form the SECN.
With 200 internal coaches, organising coaching supervision has been a challenge. Providing more group supervision was an obvious solution. The Network chose Michelle Lucas of Greenfields to help it upskill more of its experienced coaches.
“We really want to help our coaches have more regular access to quality CPD,” said Coral Ingleton, former L&D professional at Kent County Council, who recently left the council, but who continues to be involved in the Network.
Serena Cunningham manages the Network at Kent County Council.
The group supervision facilitation training was carried out in two modules, of two days and one day, with a four-month gap. The training was highly experiential with demonstrations, practice sessions and the opportunity for peer feedback.
Each delegate also had to run two group sessions of their own between the two modules. Delegates were assessed through providing a recording of a session along with a 1,000-word reflection. They also developed a supervision ‘profile’ that is shared with coaches in the Network.
Since the training, take-up of group supervision has increased markedly.
“The next challenge is, of course, to ensure that these group supervision facilitators also get access to supervision themselves!” said Ingleton.
“The plan is to support each other going forward by buddying up to deliver supervision where they can, as well as offering peer supervision to each other – using many of the techniques they learned on the course.”
For more information:
- coral@anttech.co.uk
- serena.cunningham@kent.gov.uk
- www.thecoachsupervisor.co.uk